- "Marguertie LaVenduz is a lady you will be happy to not meet. She is one of Louis Philippe's closest allies, and one of the Templars best weapons. She is the mastermind of the Crime-underworld in Paris. She comes out from nowhere, and cuts your throat with her fan. For the Templars, Marguertie is the founder of la Saint Vierge – and that says a lot"
- ―Laurent Mouzay to the Étienne-siblings, 1793
| Marguerite LaVenduz | |
|---|---|
 A street urchin; grown up to be a murderer and a tool of Juno – as one of the first "First Will"-members | |
| Biographical information | |
| Born |
c. 1764 |
| Died |
19 May 1796 (aged 31 or 32) |
| Political information | |
| Affiliations |
Templars (1789–death) French Army (1783–1789) Jacobins (1790–1795) |
| Real-world information | |
| Appears in | |
| Voice actor | |
Marguertie Chauvelin LaVenduz was a French prostitute-turned-Templar during the French Revolution and was France's answer to the English Maxwell Roth: created an army of Templars, fighting against the Assassins and controlled the boroughs of Paris. She was on many ways looked like the Templars' pearl, since she controlled every part of Paris with her lieutenants and acolytes.
LaVenduz was also one of the few women to enter the French Army at this time-period – others was for example Marguerite Murat. At the prelude of the French revolution, LaVenduz was recruited into the Parisian Rite of the Templar Order by François Germain.
After the death of her master, Louis Philippe II, LaVenduz was given the task to turn the French revolution into the favor of the Templar Order; to do so, she used her associates to control the boroughs of Paris. She controlled everything in Paris: from the simplest shoemaker to the highest politician (mostly in the Jacobin Club).
At some point during the production of "Behind the Revolution" (a codename for Assassin's Creed: Changes), Marguerite LaVenduz' genetic memories were used as an Animi Avatar. The purpose was to influence the general public via the different game consoles, under the pseudonym The Coach.
Early life[]
Birth[]
There is no record on when LaVenduz was born, but stating her appearance and looks there is a strong reason to belive that she was around 32 or 33 years when she died. There is reason belive that she was most likely to be born by a prostitute and left to die when her mother no longer could feed her or take care of her. A Parisian baker named Léon LaVenduz, can state that he saw a little girl around five or six years who carried around a little boy. He saw them stare at his bread and cakes, and they looked so emaciated that not even a vulture or another decomposer would eat them – since it would only be bone and skin of them. The baker opened his home for them. Léon gave them job as servants in his shop – and as reward they got food at the table and roof over their head.
The French Army[]
In 1783 however, Léon was informed that the French Army looked for new recruits. Léon was an old man in his 56 years. The soldiers did not care, and that he had to come forward to the public officer in Les Invalides if he did not wanted to lose his shop – or he could bring them a boy from his own household. Léon would not last a day, so one of the children decided to go instead. The two children – whom he had named after his siblings – Marguerite and Jean agreed that Jean had to leave, for the Army would not take in girls. The day before Jean left, Marguerite put a letter that she had left for the Army. Her brother was only 15, and she was 19. Marguerite clipped her hair short and went to the public officer. The officer agreed to take her into the Army, and Marguerite was given a post in Amiens. Her name in the Army was Mardun LaVenduz.
From 1783 to 1789, LaVenduz did not revealed herself as a woman. The times when the soldiers went to a place to swim, LaVenduz found a place of her own. She got one friend in the Army, however: Alphonse Saint-Just, and he knew she was a woman. He had seen her swim in a lake, and from that day he kept her secret. She told that she had come into the Army to let her brother be back in Paris. One of Saint-Just's siblings had done the same for him when he was young. During her time, her brother did never got into the Army, but he managed to send her a doll he had used when he was a little boy, and a fan that he bought for her.
Family tragedy[]
LaVenduz was dismissed from the Army in 1789, but when she returned to Paris and tried to find the bakery she had grown up at, a perfume-shop had replaced it. She asked a passing man where the bakery was, and the man replied that the bakery had burned down in 1788, and that all it's inhabitants had died with it. LaVenduz lost her belongings and fell down in front of the shop. Her brother died in a fire, and all she had left of him was a doll that had been hackneyed during the passage of time. She had only memories of her adoptive-father. From the same man she learned that it was a young neighbor who had started the fire. LaVenduz' years in the Army told her that with the information she had got from the man should not go to waste.
LaVenduz asked around in the neighborhood where the man was, and so she learned that the man who had killed her family was located in La Bièvre. He lived close to a tanneries, a perfect place for a murder, LaVenduz thought. She found him at the tanneries and killed him. He was the foreman, and it was easy to kill him: a little push and a fall. He fell right into a basin of boiling water and broke his neck. It was colored red, and LaVenduz used this chance to paint the fan she had got from her brother: every sheet of the fan was painted blood-red – a memory of her first murder.
French Revolution []
Storming of Le Bastille[]
- "Freedom is for the people, not for the elite!"
- ―LaVenduz during the storm of Le Bastille, 1789
At the 14th of July, the people in France marched to Le Bastille to get powder. They had got weapons from Les Invalides, and LaVenduz was not late on become a part of the amount of people. The nobility had been suppressing for years, and now it was time to teach the elite that there time of rule had come to an end.
Storming of Le Bastille
When the amount of people arrived at Le Bastille, the governor waited for them. He took two people inside the prison to discuss the delivery of powder that the citizenry had asked for. The negotiations drag on for hours, but then there was enough. The citizens did not wanted to follow the elite any longer. Guns banged; canons roared; swords clanked; citizens yelled; people sang.
Under the storming of Le Bastille, prisoners fled. The prison did not had more than seven prisoners – of whom was Marquis de Sade, Arno Dorian, and Pierre Bellec. In turn there was over 13 600kg of powder in the prison. When the citizens stormed into the castle courtyard, the soldiers shot against them, but they could not defend Le Bastille. The prison's governor was captured and beheaded. LaVenduz was one of the people who captured the governor and carried his head through the streets of Paris.
A voice in the Grey[]
At the end of 1789, LaVenduz had a vision: She saw cities shining as gold, towers as clean as silver. One night the woman began to scribble ciphers in the dirt: 01001010010101010100111001001111 – what did it meant? Later she was called to by a god-liking-creation. The creation did not revealed her name, but that LaVenduz could call her "She-who-lies-and-wait" or "Lady Grey". From Lady Grey, LaVenduz learned that no man or woman knew their real place.
As Lady Grey's emissioner, LaVenduz tried to find out who stood in the way for her ladyship. She sworn her life to shake the mankind back in their proper place. The question was how. As a prostitute, LaVenduz would certainly know a man who could give her a position so she could try to free Lady Grey.
Initiation of the Order[]
LaVenduz served as a prostitute at the start of the revolution in the La Bièvre. One of her customers, a man named Édmound-Louis, kept coming to her in the district. She was one his favorites, and she got a purse of gold as pay. One day LaVenduz discovered a Templar-cross in one of the nobleman's pockets, and she asked why Édmound-Louis was carrying a cross like that. He answered that he could not tell her, but when LaVenduz said that he would never get another night in her bed – something the nobleman could not agree with. He did therefore told of his connections to the Templar Order. LaVenduz found the Order tempting, and asked if the nobleman could put in a good word for her – since he got to sleep with her. Édmound-Louis asked what she could do for the Order – to which LaVenduz answered that she had the weapons of a woman, and could therefore give information to them. She could also manage to kill a person a stealthy way; LaVenduz was also capable of fighting with swords, guns, rifles and her fists – owing to her expertise from the Army.
At 23rd November 1789, LaVenduz was recruited into the order under the pseudonym of "The Coach". She followed the Grand Master Germain's play; together with Édmound-Louis, LaVenduz managed to recruit other members to the Order and helped in her quest for a country overwhelmed by peace, prosperity and free for any lie – large or small. She was given the role to control all of Paris' boroughs through the Black Office, the Jacobin Club, and her recruits; her role was also to take over La Cour des Miracles when Le Roi des Thunes was removed from the ranks. She was a soldier of Louis Philippe II, duke of Orléans and did therefore served him during the revolution.
As the Queen of Beggars, LaVenduz knew everything that happened in the boroughs of Paris. As the new Queen of the Cour des Miracles – a Parisian counter-society devoted to criminals, beggars and thieves – LaVenduz had a network of criminals who served her. Her actions as the Queen was not appreciated by the Marquis de Sade, however, and did therefore had to remove him from the Court of Miracles. She got a criminal to escort the marquis to a fairway place called Franciade.
Templar-affaires[]
The Jewel of Eden
As a Templar, LaVenduz used her network to find an instrument created by The Frist Civilization: The Jewel of Eden. Lady Grey would be very pleased with her work. With the death of the King in 1793, France's pillar of aristocracy had been removed. Her master, Louis Philippe stood almost entirely alone. The only Templars who still followed him – the other ones had been killed – was herself. Germain's acolytes could not bare the thought of being killed, but that was the truth. LaVenduz knew that it was time to eliminate her master, Louis Philippe. She sent a letter to the Brotherhood of Paris, where she told where to find the duke.
With the death of Louis Philippe and later Germain, Aloys La Touche and Robespierre, Paris only waited to be liberated by her. She would give help to the city. Soon it would be given the peace that it deserved. Now she operated on the behalf of her master: Lady Grey, She-who-lies-and-wait.
With her network of close allies LaVenduz soon learned that it was hidden a chamber under the Château de Tuileries. Until she and her acolytes – which each carried a key to the hidden vault – could find a last key to the gate at the Tuileries, they shared the keys on each of them. The keys could unlock the Templars' way to The Jewel of Eden.
With the death of LaVenduz in 1796 – and her companions during the revolution – the Assassin Brotherhood could unlock a gate in the Court of Miracles. The gate was hidden inside the pillar that Le Roi used under his hunt at Arno. Each key unlocked the vault in the Court of Miracles, where they did also found three other keys that was supposed to unlock the chamber under the Tuileries.
Inside the chamber (under the Tuileries), the Assassins found The Jewel of Eden. When The Jewel was collected, Lady Grey materialized from nowhere. She was furious over the death of LaVenduz, but told that her death could not stop the tide. She would get free from the Grey. Soon, when the world was ready for her return. She would be released – eventually. Then she disappeared.
Death[]
LaVenduz: "Alas, that la Reine des Thunes (the Queen of Beggars) will not be given a proper Templar burial, no I will rotten in the catacombs under Paris, where no one will remember me. Not one person will remember the woman who freed the Frenchmen from their suppressors."
Pierre: "You are nothing but a woman who stands in the way for the people's freedom."
LaVenduz: "I am a woman who works for the Templar Order, and I have question for you: If the Templars are so bad, why is it always we who the people turn to when they need help? Why do they never seek guidance from the Assassins? A simply answer: You have no idea of what you are doing. The Assassin Order have existed for years, yes, but you have no clear purpose. You lurk in the shadows while we help the lords and ladies who control a country."
Laurent grabbed LaVenduz' head and yelled before letting her go once again.
Laurent: "Your faction killed the beloved King!"
LaVenduz: "How much blood do you think king Louis had on his hands? How many men and children – like Joseph Bara – was sent to death by Sa Majesté (his Majesty)? Our so-called "beloved" King did not deserve anything better. The royal family have done nothing for centuries but squander their savings, and ask for more money for ridiculous wars – and for what? – for a bit of glory. The Templar Order served their King for hundreds of years – from Robert de Sablé to Jacques de Molay – but now we seek to make peace, prosperity and freedom."
Arno: "You are a Templar, you enslave the mankind, the Assassins give people freedom."
LaVenduz: "Freedom? Who are you to talk about freedom? You, you, you and you" (pointing at everyone of the Assassins) "are all from the nobility. You have no explanation of the meaning of freedom. All of you belonging to an elite that suppress the people of this nation. I was the hope of France; now hope of freedom will die with me."
LaVenduz succumbed to her wound.
LaVenduz: "She would have saved us all, through me."
Marie Anne: "Die now, Queen of Beggars – King of Imbeciles. Repose en paix."
Trivia []
- Marguertie is a French variant of the English "Margaret"
- Marguerite meaning pearl or daisy
- LaVenduz was the one who wrote a letter to the Assassins, where it said who was her master. With the death of Louis Philippe, Paris waited to fall into the LaVenduz' hands.
- Even though it was not established on her time, Marguerite can be counted like a member of the "Instruments of the First Will"
- Marie Anne's reply at Marguerite's deathbed is a reference to the memory in Black Flag: "Queen of Pirates, King of Fools".
- In Marguerite's last words she says "she would have saved us all" is a reference to Juno